I’ll start with the moral of this story:

Having great people in your company is essential. It set’s the tone for a great company culture. Attracting a big pool to choose from is tricky. Try using creative perks…Professionals love creative perks and benefits! And even smaller companies can offer some excellent small business perks that grab attention for just few hundred bucks.

Here’s some proof:

Last week we began a search to fill a position in our company, Northstar Ventures.

The position wasn’t too glamorous and we’ve had a hard time generating applications for it in the past.

As it turns out, the people involved in recruiting within our company set up a competition between each other. Whoever could generate the most resume’s would win…something…(that’s not the important part.)

They each posted their position descriptions and ultimately, the descriptions were almost identical.

One of them generated 2 responses. The other generated 25 responses.

The difference? Well, the position description that generated 25 responses had one unique line added to the very end of the post:

“…we also have XBox 360, Guitar Hero and a Ping Pong Table in our office.”

Check out these blogs for more information on this topic:
14 Behaviors and Attitudes That Can Drive Workplace Success
Before Customer Service Can Change, the Culture Must Change
The $2,288 Manicure

In a recent video I prepared to our large list of Thinktank subscribers I talked about the secret of taking action.

You get an idea. You start taking action on it. You make adjustments and discoveries along the way. And voila! As a result of your desire, focus, vision, and action, mixed in with a little hard work along the way, you create the next Microsoft! Sounds simple, huh?

If it were really that easy, most people would own their own business. And most people don’t.

The action part is where most people who want there own business get stuck!

Why? Because they don’t know what they want.

You’ve probably heard the saying, “You can’t move toward a goal if you don’t know what you want.” I think you can! And here are a few ideas to help you do just that!

Lots of people focus on what “business” would be “right for them.” You could go through the Yellow Pages and look at all of the traditional businesses as well as the more obscure… and you just might find something that fits.

But I would suggest that you think about what problems people have that you could help them solve, or what goals you could help people achieve.

People will pay you dearly to help them solve their problems or reach their goals.

Just flip on QVC or the Home Shopping Network any day of the week, any hour of the day, and you can watch people spend money on miracle cleaning products, clothes steamers, hangers that reduce their closet space by one half, or software to help them speak a foreign language!

Search the Internet for information about a particular problem, challenge or interest. What do you find? Books, e-books, subscriptions, CDs, DVDs, and MP3s about how to do it, and people including myself are forking out lots of money for it.

Don’t wait around for the perfect time to get started with a great business idea. Get started right now by thinking about problems that you can solve for yourself or other people if you only had the right product or information.

That’s how great companies are born.

Check out some other great blog posts on this topic:

Business Quote of the Week
Give Away Your Business Ideas
How to Start Business

Every business likes to boast of their awards and achievements. They should, it’s a good credibility-booster. It can also be a great PR vehicle.

But awards can grow stale and when they do it’s time to put them away forever.

I recently upgraded my life insurance policy and was instructed to visit a Port-O-Medic facility for my physical check-up. (Interesting that their name suggests a mobile service yet I had to go to them.)

After I checked in I sat in the lobby browsing through a 2001 edition of Family Circle waiting to be called in by the nurse. I looked up and noticed a prominently displayed arrangement of award plaques on the wall. As I am always interested in businesses that succeed, I got up and walked over to take a look. They all had a reference to, “Outstanding Branch of the Year”. I was mildly impressed.

But then I noticed the date of the awards: 1992. That’s was 15 years ago!

Immediately, I wondered what’s taken them so long to repeat that accomplishment. I had to wonder what the heck was going on in that branch. It got me a little nervous about what I would find behind the door. That stale award had an instantly negative impact on my view of their business.

So, go ahead and brag about your business accomplishments. But take a look at the dates. If your only accomplishments worth bragging about date back more than a couple years or so I suggest you to two things: First, stop bragging about them and put the plaques and certificates in storage, because now it’s old news. Second, go do something worth bragging about again. It’s about time.

Growing a business is tough business! There are so many distractions and tempting off-ramps. The real trick is simply maintaining focus.

As entrepreneurs we all fall into these business traps from time to time. We forget what it is that got us into the business of entrepreneurship in the first place and that creates what is known as “The Entrepreneurs Dilemma”.

Can you easily recognize when you’re caught in this subtle trap? This is something you need to be able to identify easily.

Here’s some useful insight on this topic:

Check out these great posts for more information on this topic:

Quit Coffee to Reduce Procrastination

5 Reasons You Procrastinate and How to Overcome Them

7 Habits of Highly Successful Small Business Owners

Tips to Staying Motivated While Working From Home

Let me get straight to the answer, here. In the end, successful entrepreneurship requires intellect and will. By very nature, an entrepreneur is a risk taker with a will to make things happen. But what if you’ve got doubts about the intellectual part?

I was talking to a friend recently about high school, explaining that I was a really bad student. And I was. It’s a little embarrassing to admit, but the truth is, I spent so much time surfing and goofing off with friends that I barely maintained eligibility for school sports!

Let’s just say I didn’t run with the intellectually gifted in those days, and I’ve got the SAT to prove it.

Lucky for me, I chose to become an entrepreneur.

Frankly, entrepreneurship is a profession with a very low barrier to entry. Anyone can jump in. There’s no degree required. No special testing, and no need for an impressive pedigree. All that’s required is an individual with an idea, passion, and an iron-will.

I recently read an article by Thomas McCraw about Joseph Schumpter, a famed economist and highly successful entrepreneur. Schumpter was a bright and interesting man who liked to say that he aspired to be the greatest economist, lover, and horseman in the world. Then he’d pause before delivering his punchline: Things weren’t going so well with the horses.

He also had a lot to say about the entrepreneurial psyche. He carefully explained how innovation and creativity were at the very root of successful entrepreneurship. Schumpter had a keen appreciation for the tremendous obstacles that business operators must overcome.

Schumpter held that successful innovation, and therefore, successful entrepreneurship is “a feat not of intellect but of will.”

I like that. While I believe that both will and intellect contribute to success, basically what Schumpter says here is true. The profession of entrepreneurship requires will, heart, and tenacity more than it requires intellect and book smarts.

The irony is that through the obstacles of entrepreneurship, the obstacles that require an iron-will to push through, one is forced to think through every detail and find smart solutions. They’re forced to develop some intellectual capacity.

So, successful entrepreneurship definitely requires will. No doubt, intellectual capacity goes a long way in entrepreneurship, too. The good news for late bloomers like me is that even if all you’ve got to start with is the will to succeed, then go ahead and move forward because the very process of entrepreneurship will eventually develop your intellect, too.

For more information on this topic, check out these great blogs posts:
Success Principles: 11 Keys
The Attitude of Success
Survey: Few believe a good education is necessary
Do you think a degree is still necessary?